Yuck. There had been some hope that since the Checkers had to travel further that they'd be the more tired of the two teams. Norfolk did outshoot Charlotte 41-23 in the contest, but it didn't matter considering 1 out of every 3 shots was going in for the Checkers. Mercy. The silver lining is that Paul Szczechura[9] and Mike Angelidis[10] each got their 19th goals of the season, putting them 1 shy of the magic 20 goal mark.

Norfolk's fortunes in the standings took a beating tonight, too. 3rd place Charlotte moved 3 points ahead with the Admirals still owning 3 games in hand. 2nd place Hershey lost in overtime to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton so they gained a point and are now 6 points up on the Admirals with Norfolk holding 3 games in hand. But, now Norfolk is receiving pressure from behind them. Binghamton won today, moving them to within 1 point of Norfolk with the Admirals still holding 2 games in hand. Heck, even Worcester won in the crossover.

With 8 regular season games to go, a lot of positive scenarios are still open for Norfolk to achieve, but unfortunately some of the disappointing ones are still on the table, too. Norfolk has a brutal schedule next week, although all three games are at least at home: the Penguins on Wednesday and the Bears on Friday and Saturday. And then, the final week of the season will be a grueling 5 game road trip over 7 nights in Charlotte, Binghamton, a 2 game set in Syracuse, and a season capping matchup in Connecticut against the Whale. It may be a good thing that Norfolk has an 8 point lead in the crossover, after all.